My son and I have each made a movie for the Yukon 48 Hour Film Challenge Festival this weekend.

Each project is only allowed to be a maximum of 2.5 minutes, and has to be entirely filmed and edited in two days. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy these type of constraints as they force to you to focus on the work and not worry too much about everything else in the world you could possibly do.

We did something a bit different this time though. As my son and his friend Ben made their film (in which I am an actor) I shot my film as a documentary of the making of their movie. However, there is a twist.

The festival takes place on Saturday November 12th in Dawson City and Whitehorse.

I wrote a post in 2011 called “Artists in Dark Times“. Now, in this new era of irrational grudge conservatism, it seems it is time to add another update.

I’ve seen motivational memes floating around that highlight the importance of the arts during times like these. What I want to point out right now is how, perhaps, the direction of contemporary art might change during the next four years.

It’s no secret many view the current international art scene as somewhat decorative, vapid objects couched in high production values. This shortens the distances between the art and clients with more money than sophistication. I happen to largely agree with this view but I don’t see the high end art market as ever really being separate from deep and powerful conservatism in general.

However, the stream of art history is parallel but often different to the market, winding its way through and around such giant presences in it’s path. That is where we will see a documented rise of pointed political art that is media based. We will also see large, immovable art projects that act as emotional counterpoint to the erasure of applied environmental and social values in the US during the next four years. These solid works survive via their strength of media repliciability.

Watch what art and artists this Trump regime surrounds themselves with. Take note. This is the dark, soulless gold field of the art world. It is the also the greatest achievement for a subtle critical work to slip its way into it.

I am very happy about this. The conceptual structure of this work is also site-specific, and to be realized depended on being screened at both the departure and arrival points—Dawson City, Yukon and Hamilton, Ontario.

ALP Archives

The (1st!) Keno City Film FestivalIt’s been a little while since I’ve updated this blog. If you want the latest, I update my Twitter account regularly. I’ve gone ahead and created a new Film Festival in the small Yukon community of Keno City. This started as me just screening my film “The 2017 Keno City Music Festival” for the town to see, but I realized it […]

The Grand Journey Here @ Scenic Cityhttps://vimeo.com/234348306 This short art film, my first, has certainly travelled well since its completion in 2015. This screening in Owen Sound, where my father was born and raised, is most likely the last stop before it becomes available online for streaming. There are some aspects to the work that might be easy to mis […]

2nd TONIGHT THE MOON album “2” releasedthousand voices murmered through fever’s ether urging nonsense tourists of sickness visitors to the outer bedlands. burn everything after falling in the same spot for days. shamble to offer: https://soundcloud.com/tonightthemoonis/2a-1View On WordPress

Spark in the Dark premiers Friday April 14th at Dawson City Short Film Festival 2017My son James and I are excited to launch our film A Spark in the Dark: Tinder Users in the North next week at DCISFF in Dawson City, Yukon. This short doc explores love & technology in the small and isolated town of Dawson City during the sub-arctic winter, revealing touc […]

Interview with Artist Otino Corsano: This is the fifth in a series of 11 artist interviews I conducted in 2014 titled “a new space; artists and social media”. You can learn more about this academic research project at http://artistsandsocialmedia.tumblr.com/Corsano is a New Genres Artist from California now based in Toronto, Ontario. He works in a variety of […]

Mike Brodie’s ‘Period of Juvenile Prosperity’ is currently on show at Galerie les Filles du Calvaire, Paris as part of Mois de la Photo 2014. Sang Bleu looks at the striking work of amateur photographer Mike Brodie, taken whilst he was a juvenile freight train hopper on the American railway tracks. via sangbleu: